The recession-hit UK economy shrank at its fastest rate for more than 50 years in the first three months of 2009, official figures showed today. LITTLEJOHN: Mob grief proves Britain is more wacko than Jacko ANDREW GREEN: At last, the truth about immigration and council house queue jumping Gordon Brown has been accused of 'deception' as it emerged he plans to stay silent on the need for spending cuts until after the General Election. The Prime Minister unveiled his plans in the Commons, apparently staking his political future on a Blairite agenda giving power back to parents and patients. Judge Gerald Price QC was stood down until an investigation is completed into his conduct during a relationship with a rent boy 35 years his junior. Last updated at 8:36 AM on 30th June 2009 With breathtaking contempt for democracy, Lord Mandelson casually lets slip in a radio interview that the Government will be postponing its public spending review until after the election. Are there no depths to which Labour won't sink? We all know that whichever party wins will have to impose huge spending cuts or tax increases - or both - if we're to begin to pay off the terrifying debts piling up for our children. Peter Mandelson and Gordon Brown are denying that cuts are necessary Yet the Prime Minister remains determined to go on peddling the lie that cuts are unnecessary. The outrageous decision to postpone the autumn review insults our intelligence - and makes a mockery of the election. How are voters supposed to judge the parties' tax and spending plans? Indeed, how can any party formulate an economic policy while the facts are kept secret? So much for Gordon Brown's muchvaunted commitment to a 'new era of openness'. It's a wonder he can utter those words without blushing. In a pathetic attempt to justify the decision, Lord Mandelson - and note that he is speaking, rather than the Chancellor whose domain this should be - says any review before the election 'would be based on entirely speculative projections of what economic growth will be'. But hasn't that been true of every spending review we've ever had? In fact, as the First Secretary well knows, there has never been a more urgent need for a review than now, with the Government borrowing a jawdropping £140billion more than the Chancellor forecast a year ago. As the Mail reported yesterday, spending has spiralled so far out of control that huge swathes of Britain are now more dependent on state cash than the people of Communist Cuba. Meanwhile, the clamour grows from the of the Bank of England and the OECD for the Government to start getting a grip on its finances. But no. In Mr Brown's fantasy world of denial and deceit, everything is on hold until polling day. To add further insult, he chooses this of all moments to launch a raft of new spending commitments, knowing full well that the country can't afford them. Personal tutors for every pupil, with one-to-one tuition for those who need it? A right to NHS dentistry for the 8million who don't have access to it? Free private care for those kept waiting by the NHS? This is uncosted, pie-in-the-sky fantasy. As for the rest of Mr Brown's Building Britain's Future programme - effectively a Labour election manifesto produced by Whitehall at taxpayers' expense - most of it is a mish-mash of panic-stricken U-turns, policies stolen from the Tories and measures already announced several times over. Take the pledge to give local people priority in obtaining social housing. For a decade, New Labour condemned as 'racist' the Mail and anyone else who dared suggest that asylum seekers and other migrants were jumping the housing queue. Yet here is the Prime Minister, in the death-throes of New Labour, finally saying he will reverse this (while characteristically failing to specify how). This is the politics of desperation. The sad truth is that this Government has abandoned any attempt to lay the facts before the voters, retreating into a surreal world of secrecy and lies. We saw it in the Prime Minister's initial determination to hold the Iraq War inquiry behind closed doors. Now we see it again in the postponement of the autumn spending review. The message from Labour to the people of Britain is loud and clear: you'll just have to trust us. They must be joking.Economy shrinks at fastest rate for half a century as fears grow of a double dip downturn
Tories warn of riots on the streets if Gordon Brown keeps quiet on cuts
Brown stakes all on housing, jobs and benefits manifesto (but haven't we heard it all before?)
Senior judge suspended over allegations about scandalous affair with 25-year-old rent boy
Public spending, lies and a party that is now beneath contempt
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Tuesday, 30 June 2009
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